A metal oxide, such as aluminum oxide or silicon oxide, is used in applications such as a semiconductor device and an optical thin film. It is desired that the metal oxide be formed into a film having a desired thickness at a desired place. When the metal oxide can be formed into a thin film more simply, low cost and high throughput are realized.
In Patent Literature 1, there is disclosed a film formation method including the steps of: forming, on a film forming surface of a substrate, a high-affinity region having high affinity for particles of a film forming material and a low-affinity region having affinity lower than that of the high-affinity region to the particles; and allowing the particles of a film forming material to fly onto the film forming surface by using a sputtering device having an electron capturing portion between the device and the substrate, to selectively deposit the film forming material on the high-affinity region.